After another day full of not knowing where I was in classes, I had my first basketball practice. I tried to calm myself down mentally. It was going to be hard, and I probably wasn't going to be the best. I shouldn't try to show off. Despite all the things I was tell myself, the second I entered the gymnasium my heart was racing and my bloods was pumping.
"Ugh. The girl's here?" Kevin said to no one in particular, except me.
"Gee, thanks Kevin!" I spatted back at him. "Hope you don't have that attitude all the time."
"And I hope you aren't here all the time."
"Too bad!" I stuck my tongue out at him and ran into the girls locker room. I changed quickly and by myself. "Ready!" I called out.
The boys weren't out of the locker room yet, most likely because that were talking while changing. Rosa was on the bench next to court A. Her clipboard sat beside her and I could tell her mind was working hard. "Hi," I stood above her. "So do I need permission slips or stuff like that?"
She hardly even noticed that I was there. She looked up to me, "Oh yeah. I have to give those to you." She pulled her clipboard on to her lap. "This is the standard doctors slip you have to get signed, and this is the parent permission slip." She handed me two sheets of paper. "Oh, and I called into the director of the league we are participating in. He said he'll allow you to join our team, but you have to sign a consent form. Apparently it potentially dangerous for a girl to play a guys sport. Not my opinion, but we still gotta do it."
I nodded my head agreely. "I'll give these back to you as soon as I can. You know, it's really awesome that you are a female student and the basketball coach. It must be really challenging."
"Yeah..." She zoned out a little bit, "But I love it."
I ran over to my backpack on the sideline and tucked the permission slips in it. The boys started coming out of the locker room. So far, I only knew that jerk Kevin and the two nameless boys from my gym class. Well that's not totally true, through out the day I saw other members of the team in my classes. I didn't remember all the faces I saw the night before.
"Line up!" Rosa yelled and everyone moved to the sideline. I rushed over at the end of the line facing Rosa. "Okay, as most of you know, Jade is joining our team today. It's her first day, so we are just trying to see what she can bring to the team. We are always in need of new members, since we only have 8 members. Ideally I wanted ten for the season, at least now we have nine." Rosa was basically saying she wanted someone else to join, right?
She continued, "Since it's her first day I want everyone to say her name. Why? Because communication is important on the court. We all need to work together, always." She was almost lecturing them.
The boy next to me started. He was a little bit taller than me. He had good looks and blonde hair. "I'm Jason. This is my first year playing high school basketball."
"Isaac," a dark brown haired boy stuck his head it so I could see him. "I'm a sophomore. I think we have History together." I nodded trying to picture my class and if he was in it.
One of the boys who had talked to me last night told me who he was, "I'm Mike, the team captain. If you need anything or have questions you can ask me or Rosa."
"Thanks," I smiled at him and he went back in line with the other boys.
The strawberry blonde boy from gym class stepped out powerfully, "I'm Alec, junior and point guard!"
The tallest boy on he team also seemed to be the oldest, "My name's Thomas. I prefer that to Tom, but you can call me it if you really want to... Anyway, I'm a senior member."
Next was Kevin. He folded his arms and stated, "You know me."
I narrowed my eyes at him, "Sadly," I mumbled to myself.
Finally, I was about to find out the name of the boy on my gym basketball team. He was the second shortest on the team after Alec, but only by about an inch. "Jonah."
"He's a sophomore just like me," Kevin added for the boy and himself, because he didn't say what grade he was in.
"Okay let's get started!" Miko yelled out and started walking away.
"Hey!" The last boy with the defined red hair yelled, "What about me?!"
Everyone laughed, "Oh right," from what I could tell Mike knew exactly what he was doing. "That's Keith, he is highly dislikeable."
"Hey! I can say my own name!" He protested.
"He's a freshman. If you can’t tell…”
"Stop answering for me!!!"
Mike laughed proudly, "You're a sophomore right?" I nodded. "Alright, well, Rosa? What drill are we running first?" He turned to the coach. I noticed something going on between them, but ignored it for the moment.
"Start with a three man weave." We got into three lines at half court. Nine divided nicely, so every time I would end up running the drill with Isaac and sadly Kevin. The other group was Thomas, Jonah, and Alec. The others were on defense to start.
"No wait," Kevin realized that I was across from him in the weave. "Alec switch places with me."
"No way man, I don't wanna be with the girl." He laughed playfully.
"Really?" Kevin looked down at him. "I'm gonna kick you ass."
"Yeah, yeah." Alec waved him off and that group's drill began. He started with the ball and dribbled it a few steps, before he passed it off to Tom. Alec ran behind and around Tom as he came to the middle to pass it to Jonah.
Jonah made his way to the middle. Alec cut around the defender Jonas, "Darn it!" He yelled trying the catch up. Jonah powerfully passed it to him and he took the shot right away.
"Nice job offense! Get lower next time Jonah," Rosa coached and blew the whistle for my group to go.
I jogged forward and waited to see which side Kevin would pass to. He made eye contact with me, but turned a passed it to Isaac. I sighed and kept moving forward. "Here!" I called for it, and once he and Kevin switched places, I received a pass.
A guard came on to me, so I started dribbling. "Pass!" Kevin yelled just reach the painted area of the court. Being beneath the net was dangerous for any player. While it was a close distance for shooting, it was also where the most blocks from the other team came from. In the center, Thomas looked rather talented at defense. I didn’t think passing to Kevin right then would be a good move.
“Cut,” I instructed him.
“What? No,” He looked at me in shock. “Just pass it to me. I’ll make it. Trust me.” Even though I believed he was going to work his hardest to make it in, I could pass with that much risk.
“Cut,” I repeated.
“Fine!” He made a fake inwards and popped out. The ball connected with his hands and he took the shot from the left of the paint.
“Good work Kevin and Jade. I liked the communication,” She took a jab at us, “Even if it was mostly negative.” We ran back to half court to let the other group play. “Oh, and nice pressuring Thomas.”
The drill continued with our two groups going back and forth. We kept the pace fast, but steady. For the most part the team worked well together. Isaac was where all my passes were coming from. Most of the time Kevin was the one to take shots for our group, with me only getting in a few here and there. It made me wish he was such a ball hog.
However, I did notice that the guys weren’t playing as tough on me. For example there was run where Keith was defended me. I jumped up for a shot and he didn’t even jump to block it. He seemed like he wasn’t even trying against me. It was like he was letting me have the shot, and I didn’t want anyone's pity.
After about fifteen minutes of the same thing, Rosa switched it up. “Okay, Keith take Kevin’s spot, Jonah take Thomas’, and Jason take Isaac’s.” The agreed and the defenders swapped out. The weave drill continued again. This time I was going to work with Keith and Jason. They were the two freshman on the team. Keith was intimidating and cold looking, while Jason appeared more warm hearted.
Keith was our starter. He made a quick toss to Jason right away and ran around him. “Jade!” Jason called out and threw the ball to me, which I caught. We had passed a lot more in a smaller distance than my last team. Kevin liked to dribble the ball and establish his presence on the court.
“Keith,” I sent it to the other side and ran across the court to weave behind him. We were eventually inside the three arc with defense on us. Take a guess who was guarding me… it was Kevin. This guy.
“Ha,” He laughed and stuck his arm out in front of me. “This should be easy for me, huh?”
“Shut up,” I said bluntly trying not to lose my focus.
“Whoa now, hey now, you don’t have to get all pissy,” He jabbed at me and I attempted to say the stronger one. “You aren’t that good, even for a girl, so I don’t know why you are here.”
That didn’t work for very long, “Ugh!” I clenched my fists and sprinted backwards.
“What the-?” He questioned my motion, which is exactly what I wanted.
I pressed my heels down from the backpedal I was doing and sprung forward into a sprint. I passed him and went towards the basket, “Here!” I called for the pall.
“Whoa-” I heard Jason’s voice say before he bounced passed the basketball to me. It collided with my hand and matched my other. I stopped my feet with precision and jumped back to shoot while I was in the air.
“Ha!” I called out as I shot the ball up to the net. On the ground, I looked around the gym before running back in line. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Rosa nodding and writing something down in her clipboard. I like to think she was noticing the abilities I have.
Eventually, the weave drill ended and we started something new. Practice went on from two-thirty until five o’clock. “Good job today guys. We have to keep working hard though. There are a lot of things we can improve on as a team and separately. Same time tomorrow!” She darted her eyes at all of us, “And get good sleep, I don’t want any complaining about being tired!”
“Right!” They all answered back respectfully and I mumbled after them. Sweat was coming down my face. It had been a while since I was working myself that hard. My speed and energy was really what got me through that practice. I still needed to improve my game play, whether it was shooting or more importantly, teamwork and passing. I wasn’t giving up anytime soon, because I could handle a little hard work. If anything, I was pumped up even more than I was before.
Author's Note: If you see any mistakes/typos or odd phrasings let me know, so that I can fix them. It really helps :)
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